The 5 Easy Ways Dental Practices Can Drive More Leads

Dental practices know that building a system for attracting new patients and engaging current patients is critical to the success of a practice, but sometimes marketing strategy can be overwhelming and complicated. Our goal is to make it simple and actionable! Building a high-quality digital marketing engine that drives leads to your practice means that dentists can spend more time focusing on the quality of care they are delivering to patients. Increasingly, patients are turning to online sources to research and choose the best dentist for their needs. In this blog posts we’ll talk about proven strategies to make sure that your dental practice is at the top of the list. By creating a strong online presence through a variety of best practices, such as SEO, social media, email marketing, and content marketing, dentists are able to build trust and attract new patients.

Engaging current clients is just as important as attracting new ones. Existing clients have the opportunity to provide referrals, spread the message about your practice through word of mouth, and help you grow your dental practice exponentially. Effective digital marketing for dental practices takes into account the entire lifecycle of a patient to make sure your practice is thriving.

Dental practices can increase their visibility and brand recognition through creative marketing and digital assets by utilizing the following strategies:

Social Media Marketing

Dental practices can increase their visibility by creating and maintaining a strong presence on popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This can be done by regularly posting patient or practice updates, engaging with followers, and showcasing testimonials. It’s easy for dentists to want to emulate what other popular dentists are doing, or try to be great at every platform right off the bat; however, it’s important to remember this is a marathon, not a sprint. Set a plan that you’ll still feel great about in six months. A moderate volume of consistent content is far more valuable than a huge volume of content followed up by a drought because it was not sustainable. Want a free content calendar that top dental practices use to keep their patients engaged? Click here to request it.

Content Marketing 

Dental practices can increase their brand recognition by creating and sharing valuable and informative content such as blog posts, infographics, and videos. This will not only educate potential patients but also establish the firm as a trusted authority in the dental industry. The more content that a practice can produce to help patients understand the process and efficiency of the care, the better. Content can also center around the overall experience and comfort level that the patient can expect. The less “doctor-y” it feels, the more likely they are to return and refer others inside. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Web visibility can be improved by optimizing their website and online content for search engines. This can be done by researching and incorporating relevant keywords, creating high-quality content, and building backlinks to the website. While some may wonder about the value of housing educational or written content, the fact is that they act like votes for your search results. The more targeted you are with keywords and FAQs, the higher your results will tend to be in search results. It’s important to remember that SEO is not something that can be achieved overnight, and anyone who promises you otherwise is not going to be able to deliver. Although there are simple technical changes that can improve SEO, such as correctly tagging headings, using XML markups to tell crawlers what they’re looking at, etc, the real changes are going to come from months of consistently putting out high quality content.

Local SEO

Dental firms can also improve visibility by optimizing their website and online content for local search. This can be done by claiming and optimizing their Google My Business listing, creating and optimizing local directories, and getting positive reviews from patients. When we launched our networking and content creation series, we went to top businesses around the DFW area using these analytics. A simple way for dentists to get more reviews on Google would be to ask patients to leave a review as they’re leaving the office. Oftentimes there’s a few minutes of downtime while a patient is checking out, and reminding your patients about leaving a review, and making it easy for them to do it right while they’re waiting, can go a long way towards boosting your local SEO.

Email Marketing

Dental firms can use email marketing to keep in touch with their existing patients and attract new ones. By sending regular newsletters, special offers, and educational content, dental practices can maintain a strong relationship with their patients and stay top-of-mind. There is a saying in marketing, “Your customer may not be ready to buy now. Make sure you’re top of mind when they are.” It is important to constantly stay top of mind with your patients through quality email marketing that drives value, offers promotions, and doesn’t blend in with all the other sales emails they are receiving.

By implementing these strategies, dental practices can increase their visibility, attract new patients, and build a strong and recognizable brand. Consistency is key in every tactic you try. Work on improving your strategy one month at a time to see results manifest in the long run!

Are you curious if your marketing strategy is working for you to bring in leads and grow your dental practice? Reach out to The Courtside Group via the contact form below, or use this link to book a free consultation. We’ll evaluate your marketing strategy and provide recommendations right there on the call, all for no charge at all!